Poem for the Birthday Girl

Photo in France by Pamela Pappavasiliou

To hear the related 5-minute audio file that I uploaded today as my Morning Journal flash briefing for Alexa devices, please click on the play button:

BEFORE DARLENE

On the day before
her arrival,
a boy in Massachusetts
felt a tug in the woods
on his walk to school,
a hint of something
entirely new, colors
he’d never dreamed of
gathering behind his eyes,
a whispered promise
from somewhere West
of Framingham, out where
the cowboys imagined
a busy kid always
dreaming he’d fall in love—
this was way before
he knew what mattered
most about a girl: how
she would know him
better than he knew himself
and how years later
they would never forget
each other’s birthday
and how it all began
far apart, growing
ever closer.

March 25, 2025
Sanibel